Upon leaving CPAC, today President Trump took another step to dismantle the choking network of regulations that strangles economic growth, impedes business and weakens the overall economy. Today builds upon the LARGER BACKSTORY.

The details pertain to dismantling ridiculous regulations, but the larger picture is President Trump removing the regulatory and compliance systems the U.S. CoC have used as a special interest leveraging tool to control the legislative influences upon our economy.

President Trump is, importantly, working to remove the larger legislative business lobbying community – and structurally reform the direction of business interests to traditional pro-growth, pro-worker, America First principles.

Allow me to attempt clarity – What we are continuing to witness, including today with this Executive Order, is Trump building out his economic coalition to be stronger and larger than the economic coalition represented by Paul Ryan, the GOPe, Tom Donohue and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. (Much more on that aspect will follow…)

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all very much for being here. We have tremendous people standing behind me, and the biggest in the world in terms of manufacturing and business.

Some of the people involved are Ken Fisher and Ken Frazier, Chairman and President, CEO of Merck. Alex Gorsky, Chairman, CEO of Johnson and Johnson. Marillyn Hewson — and she has been very tough to deal with but that’s okay — (laughter) — she’s a very tough negotiator, President of Lockheed Martin. Gregory Hayes, Chairman and CEO, United Technology. Andrew Liveris, my friend Andrew, Chairman and CEO of Dow Chemical Company. Mario Longhi, the President, CEO, United States Steel Corporation. Juan Luciano, Chairman, President, CEO of Archer Daniels Midland Company. Denise Morrison, President of Campbell’s Soup Company. Lee Styslinger III, Chairman and CEO of Altec, Inc. Mark Sutton, Chairman, CEO of International Paper. And Inge Thulin, Chairman, President of 3M Company.

And we have made tremendous progress with these great business leaders — amazing progress. They’re getting together in groups and they’re coming up with suggestions about their companies and how to bring jobs back to the United States. And I think it will be a fantastic day for the country.

And we met yesterday, and — I met with these folks and some more. Excessive regulation is killing jobs, driving companies out of our country like never before. Although, I must say, I think we’ve stopped it to a large part, Marillyn, right?

MS. HEWSON: Right.

THE PRESIDENT: Reducing wages and raising prices. I’ve listened to American companies and American workers. I’ve been listening to them for a long time. I’ve been listening to them complain for a long time. But today, this executive order directs each agency to establish a regulatory reform task force, which will ensure that every agency has a team of dedicated — and a real team of dedicated people to research all regulations that are unnecessary, burdensome and harmful to the economy, and therefore harmful to the creation of jobs and business.

Each task force will make recommendations to repeal or simplify existing regulations. The regulatory burden is for the people behind me and for the great companies of this country, and for small companies — an impossible situation, we’re going to solve it very quickly. They will also have to really report every once in a while to us so we can report on the progress, and so we can come up with some even better solutions.

This executive order is one of many ways we’re going to get real results when it comes to removing job-killing regulations and unleashing economic opportunity. We’ve already issued an order which says that for every one new regulation, two old regulations must be eliminated. So that in itself is going to be tremendous, but what we’re doing is much more than even that.

Every regulation should have to pass a simple test: Does it make life better or safer for American workers or consumers? If the answer is no, we will be getting rid of it and getting rid of it quickly. We will stop punishing companies for doing business in the United States. It’s going to be absolutely just the opposite. They’re going to be incentivized for doing business in the United States.

We’re working very hard to roll back the regulatory burdens so that coal miners, factory workers, small-business owners, and so many others can grow their businesses and thrive. We cannot allow government to be an obstacle to government opportunity. We are going to bring back jobs and create more opportunities to prosper, maybe more than ever before in our country. We’ve made tremendous strides over the last short period of time. This is — I guess we’re four weeks into it. I think for four weeks I’ve done a good job, wouldn’t you say? (Laughter.)

But again, I want to thank these great business leaders. Some of them are with us and the White House, and they’ve had tremendous success — Reed and Jared and so many others — in business. And they’re helping us sort out what’s going on, because really, for many years, even beyond — long beyond Obama, President Obama — I will say that it’s been disastrous for business. This is going to be a place for business to do well and to thrive.

And so with the signing of this executive order, I would like to just congratulate everybody behind me. And, Andrew, I’d like to thank you for initially getting the group together.

MR. LIVERIS: Thank you. Thank you, Mr. President.

THE PRESIDENT: Really a fantastic job you’ve done.

MR. LIVERIS: Thank you.

(The executive order is signed.)

THE PRESIDENT: Should I give this pen to Andrew? Dow Chemical. (Laughter.) I think maybe, right? (Applause.)

MR LIVERIS: Thank you.

THE PRESIDENT: That means a lot of jobs. Thank you, everybody. Thank you very much.

He wasn't in Mexico City when the above statements were uttered, only Tillerson Kelly met with the Mexican's. I fact check everything I post, quite unlike some people here, (not personal) and I challenge anyone to prove anything I post here wrong or fake.

Also, nothing will be done about Obocare . The house came back from recess scared about their re-election in 18, and it would take that long to write a new HC law.

Also nothing about infrastructure until 2018 at best, I support him and voted for him. I'm just a realist and fully understand that since Obama the Presidents job is to make speeches and golf. I wanted change also and if I could hit the streets I would. Until the Trump supporters start making as much noise as the Soros folks do we are stuck in swamp muck. Expect Bannon to be off the NSC soon, and Kellyanne back to taking polls. Sadly the machine is taking him apart because his people have jobs to go to every morning. I don't like it one bit, but I also don't drink anyone's koolaid either.

---

For those who have Faith, no proof is needed. For those who lack Faith, no proof is possible.

Look at the upper right side of this page and you will note the self-described affiliation of our group “The Last Refuge”. That name specifically chosen because we broke away from political identity framed around arguments of personality; frustrated because no one was focused on the real hands behind the networks. We have been fighting “The Big Club” for years.

President Trump is the first political entity in our lifetime that not only comprehends the faces of the false arguments (the personalities of false choice), but more importantly sees the architects behind the Potemkin villages represented by those faces. When it comes to domestic economic policies, the architects are the BIG CLUB.

So, what is “The Big Club“?

..What “Deep State” is to intelligence, military intervention and foreign policy – The “BIG CLUB” is to matters of domestic economics…Politicians do not write laws. Paul Ryan, Nancy Pelosi, Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer do not sit in their offices writing out scripts of laws and legislation; no politician does. Politicians are the faces who sell legislation that unseen hands create. The Big Club are the hands that create the legislation.

As such, it makes no sense to argue about the salesmanship of Ted Cruz or Elizabeth Warren when neither Cruz nor Warren are creating the legislative constructs they are selling.

Indeed, it makes much more sense to focus the attention on the unseen hands that are never discussed – These are the roots of the issues, the politicians are merely the expendable and interchangeable sales force.

The Big Club are massive and complex networks of lobbying groups who actually write legislation. What follows, depending on their own evaluation of importance therein, are payments to the politicians to go and sell their construct.

The amount of payment varies depending on how valuable the construct is to the interests of the Club. Big legislative constructs that provide the Club large income increases are worth more than smaller ones.

This is the accurate background framework to consider ObamaCare.

Within The BIG CLUB there are, essentially, two larger factions with interest: Big Labor and Wall Street (big crony-business). There are other factions like Big Green (Al Gore) etc. However, for the sake of ObamaCare the two that matter are “Big Labor” (AFL-CIO, SEIU, AFSCME, UFCW etc), and Wall Street (U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Tom Donohue).

The Big Club has paid for ObamaCare’s construct, and they are not going to allow their sales force to walk away from it. From their position, this is a massive ‘multi-multi-hundreds-of-millions’ expenditure that has already taken place.

Tom Donohue (U.S. CoC) already lost hundreds of millions when his construct (his team actually did the writing) of TPP was lost due to Donald Trump. Donohue’s TPP loss followed the loss of Comprehensive Immigration Reform (2014 Dave Brat), and his loss of Common Core Education standards, again with Donald Trump.

Donohue spent hundreds of millions on Gang of Eight, Common Core, TPP and ObamaCare.

Donohue paid off AFL-CIO’s Richard Trumka to get him to stop being public about his opposition of TPP. The quid-pro-quo was transparently most evident when Trumka endorsed candidate Hillary Clinton who was supporting Donohue’s TPP.

Having lost TPP, Go8 and Common Core, there is no way Tom Donohue is going to accept losing his biggest investment to date, ObamaCare.

♦ Big Labor support ObamaCare for a few reasons. #1 it granted fiscal stability to their retirement programs which were failing with the increased costs of providing healthcare coverage. #2 it creates additional profit margin space within union companies for more lucrative compensation contracts. And #3 ideologically it was constructed to eventually end up with a single-payer system. All three points are great for Big Labor.

♦ Wall Street supports ObamaCare because it: #1 removes the cost of providing healthcare from the cost of producing products in the U.S. [However, you’ll note the consumer price of manufactured goods never actually decreases, instead the savings go to the profit margin.] #2 allows the manufacturing cost equity to streamline globalization efforts.

Both primary factions within the BIG CLUB stood to gain substantially if they could shift the cost of healthcare from their individual ledgers into the personal checkbooks of the U.S. consumer. Hence, they looked at the lobbying cost of ObamaCare as a long-term legislative investment with a massive upside.

After the GOPe wing of the UniParty was voted into the majority in both houses (2014), the Big Club sales people (politicians) needed to give the illusion of “repeal” or “removal”, but not actually do anything which would remove it. So long as Obama was in office the optical games were easy; with Clinton later in office the games would be no longer needed.

Big Club spends to make sure Clinton wins the Presidency.

#NeverTrump making sense now?

Rut Roh.

Now, fast forward to 2017 and President Trump is in office on a promise to repeal and replace ObamaCare.

Once in office, President Trump works around Donohue and goes to the manufacturing and business community directly.

Now Trump is highlighting how deregulation, tax policy and other pro-growth America-First objectives will more than compensate them for any ObamaCare recall.

The battle/negotiation you see in the media is the visible stuff going on amid the Big Club’s sales people, the politicians. However, the REAL ObamaCare removal negotiation is going on behind the scenes where the Trump Administration is taking on The Big Club directly…

Once you see the strings, it’s almost impossible to watch the marionettes and not see them.

However, that doesn’t mean the puppet show has to be less enjoyable….

….Specifically because we have President Trump, it is entirely possible to simultaneously watch the show, and yet still look up toward the scaffolding and see the shadows of the hands controlling them.

The annual White House Correspondents Dinner actually has nothing to do with the White House. It is an annual dinner the Washington DC Media host to praise themselves, and over the past several years has devolved into a vulgar display of elitism, snobbery and pontificating disconnect. Presidents’ are invited to attend, President Trump has declined:

While not a campaign promise, the decision not to attend is another indication that President Trump is listening to the people. The WHCA snowflake elitism and their ideological alignment with their Hollywood invited guests personifies the DC disconnect.

Deep Sixed

Sarah Palin says:February 25, 2017 at 5:57 pm
Good on you, Mr. President. Putting oneself in front of the firing squad just isn’t funny after awhile. I would’ve done the same thing. Instead of this passé, hatin’, elitist shindig, enjoy a nice evening with your family instead.
– Sarah Palin

Sir

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Trump is just yessing them to death don’t get excited.

Deep Sixed

WINNING! .. .. .. ..
Funny thing is the canucks still think the US Border Patrol folks are trying to stop illegal aliens from leaving.
Our guys are telling them to "just cross over there and say you are a refugee from Trump. They will give you welfare."

'Swiss cheese border': Canadian border patrol union calls for hundreds more workers as it struggles to cope with wave of immigrants fleeing to the country on foot from Trump's America
Dramatic photos show asylum seekers flooding into Canada across unmanned borders every day
The Customs and Immigration Union wants to implement a 300-person team to man the border
One port in Montreal, the Saint Bernard Lecolle, has seen more than 200 illegal entries this week alone
Number of asylum seekers crossing into Canada has increased since Trump's election in November
By Anna Hopkins For Dailymail.com
PUBLISHED: 13:54 EST, 5 March 2017 | UPDATED: 16:01 EST, 5 March 2017

This is YUGE news and will impact each and every American. One of the missing elements in our quest for energy independence has always been the lack of oil refining capacity to produce gasoline and other fuel end-products.

Years of choking fossil fuel regulation, partly funded and supported by an alignment of special interests including foreign governments, OPEC and eco lobbyists, has created a situation where over half of our oil refining capability was eliminated.

With the election, and independence, of Donald Trump that course has changed dramatically. Trump is not beholden to the lobbyists and special interests who pay for the U.S. to remain dependent on foreign oil and off shore refinement.

Additionally, this is a really big deal because our predictions have always been that President Trump will find a way to make ‘USenergy exports‘ a big part of the U.S. expanding economy. A complete paradigm shift – and with it comes unexpected and unpredicted (by most) additional growth in GDP. Hence this emphasis:

(Via Reuters) Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N), the world’s largest publicly traded oil producer, said on Monday it would invest $20 billion through 2022 to expand its chemical and oil refining plants on the U.S. Gulf Coast.

The investments at 11 sites should create 35,000 temporary construction jobs and 12,000 permanent jobs, Chief Executive Darren Woods said in a speech at CERAWeek, the world’s largest gathering of energy executives.

Some of the expansions began in 2013, but the scope of the project is now growing and the timeline extended, Exxon said.

Woods ran Exxon’s refining division before becoming CEO two months ago, and the new spending benefits a sector with which he has significant experience and comfort. Investments in the high-margin projects should help ease concerns from Wall Street that Exxon’s growth potential – especially in oil and gas exploration and production – is sliding.

“Exxon Mobil is building a manufacturing powerhouse along the U.S. Gulf Coast,” Woods said. “These businesses are leveraging the shale revolution to manufacture cleaner fuels and more energy-efficient plastics.”

The investments across Texas and Louisiana will take advantage of cheap shale gas to make plastics and other chemicals for export. The strategy builds on prior steps Exxon and peers, including Dow Chemical Co (DOW.N), have taken in the wake of the American shale expansion, which sharply cut production costs.

“The supply is here. The demand is there. We want to keep connecting those dots,” Woods said.

Exxon last month pledged to boost this year’s spending by 16 percent to expand operations, especially in shale production, after the company posted a better-than-expected quarterly profit, helped by rising oil prices and lower costs.

U.S. President Donald Trump, who tapped former Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson for secretary of state, praised the company’s spending plans as an example of “a true American success story.” Most of the permanent jobs are expected to pay more than $100,000 per year.

“This is exactly the kind of investment, economic development and job creation that will help put Americans back to work,” Trump said. (read more)

Back in March 2016, Trump trashed the current H-1B visa system, saying "The H-1B program is neither high-skilled nor immigration; these are temporary foreign workers, imported from abroad, for the explicit purpose of substituting for American workers at lower pay."

Of course, as we pointed out a few weeks ago, by far the largest beneficiaries of the current H-1B visa program are large Indian consulting firms like Tata and Wipro. That said, most of the jobs performed by those companies in the U.S. tend to be on the lower end of the pay spectrum for IT jobs, at least as compared to the ones created by the likes of Microsoft, Google and Facebook.

In response, a recently revealed draft of a new Trump executive order related to the issuance of H-1B visas reportedly directs the Secretary of Homeland Security to consider ways to "make the process of H-1B allocation more efficient and ensure the beneficiaries of the program are the best and the brightest." While that directive could be accomplished in a variety of ways, one likely solution would be to replace the current lottery system with one that prioritizes visas for those earning the highest salaries.

Now, under pressure from Trump’s administration, Indian outsourcing firms are ramping up their lobbying efforts and proactively proposing solutions that the White House may find attractive. As the Wall Street Journal points out, one such solution would entail setting up trade schools in the rust belt to train U.S. workers to take the jobs that otherwise would have been filled by Indian H-1B visa holders.

Indian information-technology firms are boosting efforts to lobby U.S. lawmakers and are considering ways to train American workers for tasks that Indian workers come to the U.S. to do.

Indian outsourcers and U.S. tech firms say the visa program, which Mr. Trump assailed on the campaign trail as “a cheap labor program,” is necessary to fill jobs where too few workers with the right skills are available in the U.S. Critics say H-1B visas are used as a cost-cutting method, with firms largely hiring Indians, who are willing to work for less than Americans.

Earlier in February, executives from India’s biggest IT services firms gathered in New Delhi to discuss a plan to address the skill shortage in the U.S. by setting up schools in the U.S.’s Rust Belt towns to train local workers to do simple IT jobs, according to Shalabh Kumar, an Indian-American businessman, founder of the Republican Hindu Coalition, and Trump fundraiser who coordinated the talks. Leaders from Tata Consultancy Services Ltd., Infosys Ltd. and Wipro Ltd. were among the executives at the meeting, which was partly organized by India’s National Association of Software and Services Companies, or Nasscom.

The discussion included a proposal to fund new trade schools and collaborations with local universities in the U.S. to teach basic tech skills in two- to three-year programs following high school.

Of course, with 3.7 million people employed by India's various IT services firms, the 'swamp dwellers' of Washington D.C. are collecting their fair share of India's panic bid to save the important industry.

Mr. Modi’s meeting underscores the importance of the U.S. to Indian IT services firms, which employ nearly 3.7 million people in India and abroad. The U.S. accounts for some 60% of the sector’s revenue, according to Nasscom.

A delegation representing Indian IT firms traveled to Washington, D.C., recently to meet officials in the new U.S. administration and others, Nasscom said in a statement, and apprise them of the Indian IT industry’s contribution to the U.S. “in terms of jobs created or supported and investments made.” Among those who made the trip were CP Gurnani, chief executive of Indian outsourcing firm Tech Mahindra Ltd., and Nasscom President R Chandrashekhar.

Nasscom also has been increasingly spending money on pressing Indian IT firms’ case with U.S. lawmakers. Federal U.S. lobbying records show Nasscom spent $440,000 last year on services from Washington, D.C.-based lobbying firms Wexler Walker and Arlington, Va.-based Lande Group. That was up from the $350,000 it spent in 2015 on those firms, along with Washington-based BGR Government Affairs. The records show issues the firms were paid to address included “high skill immigration,” “visa processing,” and other “issues related to immigration.”

Whether by luck or a shrewd business sense, it's difficult to argue that Trump's unpredictable style certainly prompts action.

Silver Member

"Laws that forbid the carrying of arms, disarm only those who are neither inclined, nor determined to commit crimes. Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants. They serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man." - Thomas Jefferson, 1764

Last night President Trump had a lengthy dinner and conversation with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in advance of several upcoming foreign emissary visits to the White House, and T-Rex’s strategic trip to Asia.

Today President Trump took Secretary Kelly (DHS), Secretary Ross (Commerce), Secretary Mnuchin (Treasury), Secretary Shulkin (VA), together with their spouses to Trump National Golf Club in Virginia.

Clockwise from President Trump: Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Hilary Ross, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and Louise Linton (engaged), Karen Kelly and DHS Secretary John Kelly, White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, Senior Adviser Steve Bannon, Press Secretary Sean Spicer, Merle Bari Shulkin and Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin.
This type of exit from DC is really smart for multiple reasons. It might be a little challenging for the convoy to drive 35 minutes, but it allows the cabinet team to synergize in a more relaxed environment with introductions and fellowship amid the spouses.

Additionally, it provides a fully private venue, with full pre-arrival security controlled by Team Trump (ie. no ears); and an escape from the toxic fumes which perpetually emanate from the DC Swamp.

However, word of President Trump going to his National Golf Club in Virginia immediately sent The Hill into an article about Trump golfing today:

President Trump paid a visit to one of his golf courses again Saturday, marking apparently his ninth visit to a golf course in the seven weeks since he took office.

The president visited Trump National Golf Club in Virginia, about 25 miles outside Washington, according to a pool report. The report did not state whether the president was actually playing golf, or if he was just visiting the club.

Before becoming president, Trump frequently complained about former President Barack Obama playing golf, arguing that he should instead be working. But since taking office, Trump hasn’t been shy about hitting the golf course himself. (link)

Well, it would appearour hunch was correct.If Trump was going to pull off a “reverse Castellano’s“, Caesar needed Brutus to feel comfortable enough to come close…
The problem for Speaker Ryan was a lack of muti-dimensional situational awareness, and the abject inability to escape President Trump’s political gravity. Breitbart Media, with transparent coordination between Matthew Boyle, Steve Bannon and President Trump delivers the shiv right on cue.

(Breitbart) On a never-before-released private October conference call with House Republican members, House Speaker Paul Ryan told his members in the U.S. House of Representatives he was abandoning then-GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump forever and would never defend him ever again. (read more)

Here’s what everyone needs to understand about this play:

February 27th, 2017 – President Trump and Matthew Boyle

♦ First, the release is from Breitbart via Matthew Boyle; and contains all of the elements needed for well played political plausible deniability.

♦ Second, it was transparent this was coming. The “Reverse Castellano’s” play only works if the mark (Ryan) feels over confident about their position. It takes months for Caesar to cultivate the false confidence within Brutus; giving the appearance that Caesar depends on him.

Caesar Trump knows he must publicly shower Brutus Ryan with praise so the audience can provide the authentic fuel needed for Brutus to overcome any internal trepidation. Caesar Trump needs Brutus Ryan to feel empowered and emboldened.

Only when Brutus thinks his travels are inconsequential, can he be counted on to drop his guard and believe his schemes and associations are undetected.

♦ Third, timing. On the eve of President Trump meeting with the Freedom Caucus, led by Jim Jordan, the face of Ryan’s antagonism and opposition, Team Trump – Bannon via Boyle, delivers the Brutus knee-capping that will drive the media discussion cycle.

As Brutus walks comfortably through the courtyard, dagger in hand, the trillion-power spotlights all simultaneously turn on and reveal his intent. The entire Senate quietly notified and previously pre-staged to watch as the reveal takes place….

Yes, President Trump has allowed Paul Ryan to construct and carry the healthcare scroll; however, he also planned to leverage a change within it. Thus, Tom Donohue (CoC) and the Koch Brother’s invisible ink signatures can now easily be removed from the document and modifications made forthwith.

Brilliant.

To the electorate President Trump has magnanimously set all differences aside and taken the high road in his -very visible and public- praise of Ryan as the Speaker created the Healthcare proposal they both needed.

Now, with the release of his audio, the electorate look angrily toward Ryan who has verbally shown his snakeskin.

Speaker Ryan is now less than. He’s lost a necessary coalition, support and friends. For a time he now becomes toxic even for those of similar skin who scheme quietly with him.

Ryan should have seen this coming. But, pride.

The reverse castellano’s is a modified version of the same play previously carried out on Senator Ted Cruz at the GOP convention.

Candidate Trump knew prideful Cruz was not going to endorse him; and Trump knew defeated candidate Cruz was going to try virtue signaling for prideful political benefit. Trump also knew, as any top level executive chess-master does, the approach by a prideful Cruz would backfire against the largest possible political audience…. so he let him walk right into the coliseum and do it.

Effective today, President Trump not only holds positional leverage, but he carries something more valuable – emotional political leverage.

Today President Trump will take the high road and praise Speaker Paul Ryan yet again; telling the audience to drop old grudges, there are more important tasks at hand… we must remove the lumps from our political hearts.

President Trump will grant Speaker Ryan forgiveness and the crowd shall cheer Trump’s decency and warmth.

Magnanimity becomes currency. The exchange rate is determined by the electorate. The purchase price is within the Healthcare bill.

A Reuters filing en route to Asia showcases the bitterness, anger and seething rage of U.S. journalists who have been forced to fly First-Class Commercial to cover Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s Asia trip.

State Department correspondents are used to the exclusive wide-body private charters of the U.S. federal government’s airline fleet. Previous heads of the Department of State have flown aboard Air Force 3. Normally a Boeing 757. At the very worst Air Force 3 would be a C17 Globemaster.

However, T-Rex is taking a smaller jet to Asia and only one journalist accompanies him. To make matters exponentially worse, T-Rex did not select a journalist from the corporate stable of the refined and pedigreed media elites.

We can only imagine how Andrea Mitchell must be seething at having to take simple first-class commercial flight accommodations with ordinary people. The scope of the almost unimaginable horror she has to face will soon pour from her pursed and vengeful lips. We can predict a retaliatory report soon from the wrath of the ignored elitist within NBC. This shall be, as they say, epic.

Secretary Tillerson has rebuked customs and norms. The traveling correspondents will have to pass through customs and passport checks as if they are ordinary travelers. There is a very real possibility no-one will recognize them or care diligently for their very individual and specific needs.

Can you imagine Mrs. Alan Greenspan flying all the way to Asia from the Eastern Seaboard and having to do that on a commercial flight? My God, have we really dropped our standards of decency that far…

Air Force 3 – Not being used by T-Rex

Oh yeah, the pontificating journalist elites are pi**ed off. After traveling with every possible indulgence aboard exclusive State Department accommodations with Secretary Clinton and Secretary Kerry, you cannot even fathom how angry they are right now without private dining, DoS chefs, shaved chocolates and Cristal mimosas.

None of this is me joking. This bunch of snobs having to fly commercial is unheard of.

They are ready to tear into Secretary Tillerson in every single filed report. Just watch what you see on TV:

(Reuters) U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is traveling to Asia this week accompanied by only one reporter, a White House correspondent from the Independent Journal Review (IJR), a digital news outlet founded in 2012 by former Republican political operatives.

The IJR said in a statement late Tuesday the State Department last week offered one of its reporters, Erin McPike, a place aboard the Secretary’s aircraft on his trip this week to Asia.

[…] The State Department had previously told reporters covering Tillerson’s trip to South Korea, Japan, and China that he would not be taking reporters on his plane and that they would have to fly commercially, breaking with decades of precedent stretching back to Henry Kissinger.

Major news organizations complained, among them the BBC, CNN, New York Times, Washington Post and Reuters.

[…] The State Department Correspondents Association, which represents reporters who cover U.S. diplomacy, said in a statement that it was “disappointed” Tillerson chose to travel to Asia without a full contingent of media “or even a pool reporter”.

“After saying it was unable to accommodate press on the Secretary’s plane to Asia due to space and budget constraints, the State Department offered a unilateral seat to one reporter,” the statement said.

“Several of our members have traveled commercially to meet Secretary Tillerson on the ground in Asia. We expect that the diplomatic press corps will be afforded access to Secretary Tillerson equal to that given to the reporter on the plane.”

A spokesman for IJR, Matt Manda, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether McPike would file pool reports to colleagues, or whether IJR had any comment on the SDCA’s statement.

For decades, secretaries of state have nearly always invited media to travel with them. In rare cases, particularly late in a secretary’s tenure, some outlets have declined the invitations, such as for former Secretary John Kerry’s December 2016 trip to Saudi Arabia.

Republican secretaries of state Alexander Haig, George Shultz, James Baker, and Condoleezza Rice routinely took 10 or more journalists on their overseas trips, even to conflict zones such as Lebanon and Central America.

Up through Tuesday, just hours before Tillerson was scheduled to leave, the State Department declined to confirm whether there would be any reporters on Tillerson’s plane.

Acting State Department spokesman Mark Toner said in a phone briefing with reporters on Tuesday that the agency was considering “having a seat available” on his plane.

“We’ve been very clear, frankly, that this is a smaller footprint all around, and this is the Secretary’s decision, to travel with a smaller footprint,” Toner said. “To some degree, it’s a cost-saving measure.” (read more)

The rest of the article is Reuters tearing into IJR for having the audacity to accept a seat on the flight with T-Rex. This is like High School mean girls taken to exponential levels of vitriol and hatred.

Deep Sixed

The peasant revolution has begun. Playing the phony aristocratic game is over for not only the media, but for government officials as well

It’ll be a hard lesson for them, to find out after so many decades that, OMG, they’re simple peasants too!

The spoils & perks that come from government largess are paid for by the peasantry. Those spoils & perks we bestow upon them have turned our government representatives & media into spoiled petulant children who’ve completely lost sight of their duty, which is serving we the people, the American people

They’d better learn that lesson quick, because Professor Trump is the teacher

Real journalism & government service are noble endeavors when men & women of integrity & honor are in place. The corrupt ass clowns in place now need to be schooled in the harshest way

On a personal note: If it were up to me all foreign aid would be gone and no one would get another red cent from us. All military aid to other countries would be totally done. We'd concentrate on rebuilding our infrastructure and seeing that there were no homeless or hungry in the US.

Update: echoing comments made by Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican who serves on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the top House Democrat said that the Trump budget proposal is "dead on arrival."

* * *

Today at 7am, Trump released his "skinny budget", his administration's first federal budget blueprint revealing the President's plan to dramatically reduce the size of the government. As previewed last night, the document calls for deep cuts at departments and agencies that would eliminate entire programs and slash the size of the federal workforce. It also proposes a $54 billion increase in defense spending, which the White House says will be offset by the other cuts.

“This is the ‘America First’ budget,” said White House budget director Mick Mulvaney, a former South Carolina congressman who made a name for himself as a spending hawk before Trump plucked him for his Cabinet, adding that “if he said it in the campaign, it’s in the budget.”

In a proposal with many losers, the Environmental Protection Agency and State Department stand out as targets for the biggest spending reductions. Funding would disappear altogether for 19 independent bodies that count on federal money for public broadcasting, the arts and regional issues from Alaska to Appalachia. Trump's budget outline is a bare-bones plan covering just "discretionary" spending for the 2018 fiscal year starting on Oct. 1. It is the first volley in what is expected to be an intense battle over spending in coming months in Congress, which holds the federal purse strings and seldom approves presidents' budget plans.

Trump wants to spend $54 billion more on defense, put a down payment on his border wall, and breathe life into a few other campaign promises. His initial budget outline does not incorporate his promise to pour $1 trillion into roads, bridges, airports and other infrastructure projects. The budget directs several agencies to shift resources toward fighting terrorism and cybercrime, enforcing sanctions, cracking down on illegal immigration and preventing government waste.

The White House has said the infrastructure plan is still to come.

That said, Congress controlled by Trump's fellow Republicans, is likely to reject some or many of his proposed cuts with some republicans calling the budget "dead on arrival." Some of the proposed changes, which Democrats will broadly oppose, have been targeted for decades by conservative Republicans. Moderate Republicans have already expressed unease with potential cuts to popular domestic programs such as home-heating subsidies, clean-water projects and job training.

Trump is willing to discuss priorities, said Mulvaney. "The president wants to spend more money on defense, more money securing the border, more money enforcing the laws, and more money on school choice, without adding to the deficit," Mulvaney told a small group of reporters during a preview on Wednesday. "If they have a different way to accomplish that, we are more than interested in talking to them," Mulvaney said.

The defense increases are matched by cuts to other programs so as to not increase the $488 billion federal deficit. Mulvaney acknowledged the proposal would likely result in significant cuts to the federal workforce. "You can’t drain the swamp and leave all the people in it," Mulvaney said.

Trump asked Congress to slash the EPA by $2.6 billion or more than 31 percent, and the State Department by more than 28 percent or $10.9 billion. Mulvaney said the "core functions" of those agencies would be preserved. Hit hard would be foreign aid, grants to multilateral development agencies like the World Bank and climate change programs at the United Nations.

Trump wants to get rid of more than 50 EPA programs, end funding for former Democratic President Barack Obama's signature Clean Power Plan aimed at reducing carbon dioxide emissions, and cut renewable energy research programs at the Energy Department. Regional programs to clean up the Great Lakes and Chesapeake Bay would be sent to the chopping block.

Community development grants at the Housing Department - around since 1974 - were cut in Trump's budget, along with more than 20 Education Department programs, including some funding program for before- and after- school programs. Anti-poverty grants and a program that helps poor people pay their energy bills would be slashed, as well as a Labor Department program that helps low-income seniors find work.

Long reviled by conservatives, the Internal Revenue Service would get a $239 million cut, despite Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s request for more funding. The Education Department would receive $1.4 billion to invest in public charter schools and private schools, even as its overall budget is cut by 14 percent. But other numbers appear to contradict some of Trump’s top priorities. One of his campaign pledges was to work to cure diseases, but the National Institutes of Health will reportedly see $5.8 billion slashed from its budget.

Trump calls for a 13 percent cut to the Transportation Department, which would ostensibly play a big role in Trump’s promised infrastructure overhaul. That includes $500 million from the TIGER grant program, which provides funding for road and bridge projects.

Trump's rural base did not escape cuts. The White House proposed a 21 percent reduction to the Agriculture Department, cutting loans and grants for wastewater, reducing staff in county offices and ending a popular program that helps U.S. farmers donate crops for overseas food aid.

And the winners

White House officials looked at Trump's campaign speeches and "America First" pledges as they crunched the numbers, Mulvaney said. "We turned those policies into numbers," he said, explaining how the document mirrored pledges to spend more on the U.S. nuclear weapons arsenal, veterans' health care, the FBI, and Justice Department efforts to fight drug dealers and violent crime.

The Department of Homeland Security would get a 6.8 percent increase, with more money for extra staff needed to catch, detain and deport illegal immigrants. Trump wants Congress to shell out $1.5 billion for the border wall with Mexico in the current fiscal year - enough for pilot projects to determine the best way to build it - and a further $2.6 billion in fiscal 2018, Mulvaney said.

The estimate of the full cost of the wall will be included in the full budget, expected in mid-May, which will project spending and revenues over 10 years. Trump has vowed Mexico will pay for the border wall, which the Mexican government has flatly said it will not do. The White House has said recently that funding would be kick-started in the United States.

The voluminous budget document will include economic forecasts and Trump's views on "mandatory entitlements" - big-ticket programs like Social Security and Medicare, which Trump vowed to protect on the campaign trail.

“There is no question this is a hard-power budget,” said Mulvaney. “It is not a soft-power budget.”

The budget requests $1.5 billion to detain and remove undocumented immigrants, and $314 million to hire 500 new Border Patrol officers and 1,000 new Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.

Deep Sixed

As soon as PBS and NPR took a side and became political propaganda they lost any right they had to public funding. Period.
If their shows are good they would be able to fund themselves, but like any liberal/leftist propaganda nobody wants to pay to hear it.
If there was any market for it there would be leftist versions of Rush and Hannity. But there is none.
National Endowment of the Arts and the National Endowment of the Humanities is the same. If there is a market for it they will enjoy much success.
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Too cool. President Trump and Vice-President Pence were both in Palm Beach Florida Saturday, leading to multiple motorcades. Groups of President Trump supporters gathered along the route as President Trump’s motorcade passed by.

A small group had lined up on Bingham Island with signs and flags. According to one supporter: “We waved to him, the cars went by really fast, and we were just sitting down talking about the events of the day,” said Valeria Bianco.

The long-time Trump supporter said no one expected what happened next. Bianco said a member of the President’s team came back, “And invited us to go to Mar-a-Lago,” she said. “To get into a secret service van, get checked out, and go to Mar-a-Lago.”

According to Bianco, she and six others were taken to a ballroom inside of the President’s home. “And then, lo and behold, our President appeared,” she said.

The group posed for photos with the President as he thanked the group for the support.

“We stop everything to do what we’re doing for President Trump and Vice President Pence, because we love this country and we love this administration, and we love what they stand for, and we want them to know that all the hard work that they’re doing is not in vain,” Bianco said. “Having said that, he acknowledged all of that, and we got to talk a little bit about that.”

It was a ‘thank you’ Bianco said she never expected, but doesn’t put past the President, who’s been full of surprises. “It was a lovely, lovely experience and I just hope it happens again and again,” she said. (media link)